A newly published book recounts President Donald Trump’s alleged remarks that he ‘spent a fortune’ fumigating dinnerware at his Florida resort after the visit of former fixer Roy Cohn, who was dying of AIDS-related complications. 

Investigative journalists Joe Palazzolo and Michael Rothfeld have delved deep into the various lawyers and media tycoons who influenced Trump’s rise to power in their new book The Fixers. They examine the history of former fixer Roy Cohn, who was vocal in his homophobic views yet it would later be revealed he was gay. 

On January 10 2020, the Wall Street Journal published an excerpt of the book, which states: “Cohn manipulated the media and the legal system to secure business advantages for Mr Trump. He cast his client as a fabulously successful developer who transformed his father’s collection of low-end apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens into a Manhattan-based empire of luxury condominium towers.”

Cohn was an infamous, controversial, and well-connected attorney who represented mob bosses, politicians, and celebrities. He acted as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy and was a close friend to Nancy Reagan. During his career, he helped purge suspected LGBT+ employees from Government positions. 

In 1986, Cohn died of AIDS-related complications and was later suspected to be a closeted homosexual due to claims from both his cousin and a man believed to have been his boyfriend. The lawyer publicly denied the reasons for his illness, claiming it was due to liver cancer. Early in that same year, Trump invited him to what appeared to be a farewell dinner in Mar-a-Lago. 

However, the two had grown distant and were no longer working together. Before the attorney’s death in 1986, Cohn had been disbarred for “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation”.

The Fixers states President Donald Trump “invited Cohn for what seemed like a farewell dinner at Mar-a-Lago… At the table, the place settings were ornate, and a gold candelabra rested on the table. Guests paid tribute to the dying lawyer. […] Trump called Cohn to check-in as his illness progressed, though they weren’t working together anymore.”

In 2016, Trump would later recall Cohn’s visit to guests at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Fixers. He allegedly made a joke about the dinner, “I had to spend a fortune to fumigate all the dishes and silverware.”  

The Fixers further notes, “Mr Trump’s views of media and celebrity were shaped by Cohn and his successors, the men he relied on to project a particular version of himself – one that often bore little resemblance to reality.”